JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Having recently recovered full ownership of the Alvalade copper/lead/zinc project in the Iberian Pyrite Belt of southern Portugal, exploration and development company Avrupa has said it is open to finding new partners for the project.
The company has assembled a data set for potential partners to review and reported this week that interest in the project was strong.
Avrupa, which trades on the TSX-V, last month regained 100% ownership of the project, after two former partners agreed to return their combined 60% ownership of the project. Avrupa has written off one partner’s debt of about €160 000 and has agreed to future success-based payments to the initial partner on the project.
These payments include a €75 000 deposit, a cash payment of $250 000 on the filing of an initial National Instrument (NI) 43-101-compliant resource estimate meeting certain minimum criteria, staged cash payments totalling $1-million on the completion of a NI43-101-compliant feasibility study meeting certain minimum criteria, and staged cash payments totalling $3-million when commercial production starts.
Previous partners have spent over $7.6-million on exploration for volcanogenic massive sulphide copper, zinc and lead mineralisation, resulting in discoveries at Sesmarias and Monte da Bela Vista.
Avrupa holds nine exploration licences in three European countries, including six in Portugal covering 3 271 km2, two in Kosovo covering 47 km2, and one in Germany covering 307 km2. Avrupa has three active option and joint venture (JV) agreements, including an option agreement with Australia’s Oz Minerals at the Alvito project, southern Portugal, a JV with Blackheath Resources at the Covas project, in northern Portugal, and a JV at the Slivovo gold project, in Kosovo, where the company’s partner is fully funding the programme.